The Weather Channel Pissed Off A Bunch Of Scientists When It Decided To Name Winter Storms

BI Answers: How do winter storms get their names?

Less than a month after Hurricane Sandy felled trees, knocked out
power lines, and smashed homes along the stretch of coastline
from Maryland to Massachusetts, another storm was barreling
towards the northeast.

For the first time in history, The Weather Channel decided to
name the winter storm. They called it Athena, for the Greek
goddess of warfare. (She's also the goddess of courage,
civilization, inspiration, law, wisdom, and justice, but we're
pretty sure these aren't what TWC had in mind when they came up
with the moniker.)

"A storm with a name is easier to follow," TWC's chief winter
weather forecaster, Tom Niziol,
wrote on its website, "which will mean fewer surprises and
more preparation."

With the majority of the region still heaving from Sandy's
effects, Niziol said, it was important to make announcements
about a second storm clear and simple. Sounds pretty reasonable,
right?

Wrong. Naming winter storms is a big no-no, at least as far as
the National Weather Service is concerned.

Shortly after TWC's announcement, the NWS issued a press release
stating it would not recognize any of TWC's names for winter
storms; the agency also
sent out an internal memo advising its staff to "please
refrain from using the term Athena in any of our products."

Why All The Fuss Over A Name?

At first glance, it seems like it should have been no big deal.
The Weather Channel named the storm because they thought it would
make it easier for people to protect themselves from its effects.

Whenever an announcement was made about incoming winds or severe
temperatures associated with the storm, they could shout out the
name Athena. Anyone listening would know instantly that the
information was related to a bigger pattern of events; one that
could be severe and long-lasting.

This same idea is what inspired the government to start naming
tropical storms for the first time in the early 1900s. The
naming system worked so well that it became
official policy in 1953. For nearly three decades, every
Atlantic tropical storm was named using a database kept by the
National Hurricane Center. The original list featured only
women's names, but men's were added in 1979.

We've been doing this for hurricanes and tropical storms for
years. Why not do the same for winter storms?

Here's the problem: Hurricanes and winter storms are radically
different tempests, and lumping them in together can be
misleading. Only about 100 hurricanes happen every year across
the globe, New York University Center of Atmosphere Ocean Science
professor Olivier Pauluis told us. By contrast, winter storms can
be thought of as including all of our "bad weather" days — times
when it's extra windy or raining heavily, said Pauluis.

The difference between a hurricane and winter storm is a lot
easier to see via satellite. While hurricanes have a
single, well-defined center (the eye) that the rest of the
storm rotates around — meaning they often follow a pattern that
meteorologists can track — winter storms can have multiple
centers that move and shift dramatically.

Each beast forms differently, too. While winter storms develop
when there's a large temperature gap between two blobs of air,
hurricanes form
near the equator when the heat from warm ocean waters
combines with powerful winds to create large water droplets.

Those droplets condense into thick columns of clouds, which
eventually power a spinning storm. Depending on the storm's
windspeed, meteorologists decide if it's a tropical storm or a
hurricane.

Imagine you see a tweet from The Weather Channel, for instance,
that says that Winter Storm Triton is approaching. It's going to
be a doozy — lots of rain, wind, the whole deal. You consider
canceling your weekend trip upstate. But then you get home and
tune into your local weather station to see if there's an update.
The weather person mentions that heavy rains are coming, but says
nothing about any big storm, not to mention anything named
Triton. Should you still cancel?

Chances are, you won't be getting an answer any time soon.

Hurricanes are named according to a
standardized international system that cycles through a
predetermined set of names, while these named winter storms are
nothing more than a made-for-TV creation. But despite any
confusion that's resulted from TWC's latest tradition, the
company has no plans to stop naming winter storms.

Most names are based on Greek or Roman mythology, with a few
exceptions. This year's "B" storm, Bozeman, is in honor of
the Montana high school class that helped develop last year's
list of names. The "W" storm name, Wolf, was chosen
via popular vote.